Montreal: SunTrust Racing race report

Angelelli, Magnussen Take Circuit Gilles Villeneuve by Storm;
Victory Pulls Team To Within Two Points of Rolex Series Lead
Max Angelelli and Jan Magnussen scored their second victory of the season
in the No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac Riley of Wayne...

Angelelli, Magnussen Take Circuit Gilles Villeneuve by Storm;
Victory Pulls Team To Within Two Points of Rolex Series Lead

Max Angelelli and Jan Magnussen scored their second victory of the season
in the No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac Riley of Wayne Taylor Racing at
Friday's Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Montreal 400K and pulled
to within two points of the championship lead with three races left on
the 2007 schedule.

It was the 11th victory in the history of SunTrust Racing since joining
the Rolex Series in 2004, the third for the driving duo of Angelelli and
Magnussen dating back to May of 2006, and the second for the Wayne Taylor
Racing organization, which was formed just this past offseason to carry
on the SunTrust Racing banner. Angelelli and Magnussen last co-drove to
victory April 29 at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Va.

Today's effort by the SunTrust team capped it strongest overall
weekend of the season. Magnussen clocked the fastest lap in
Friday's opening practice session and never looked back. The team
ran in the top three in Friday's second practice session, and
Magnussen this morning qualified the No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac on the front
row for the fourth time this season. Angelelli then recorded the fastest
lap of final practice over the 2.71-mile Circuit Gilles Villeneuve,
annual home of the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix.

From the second starting position, Magnussen stayed close behind the
polesitting No. 99 Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley of Jon
Fogarty and Alex Gurney -- a five-time winner and eight-time
polesitter already this season -- until the first caution period of
the day on Lap 12 of today's 68-lap event. Magnussen pitted and the
SunTrust team opted for a fuel-only stop, a strategic move that sent him
back out ahead of the No. 99 of Fogarty, which took on fuel and tires.
From there, Magnussen stayed well in the lead at a blistering pace until
the caution flag flew again on Lap 33. Magnussen then turned the SunTrust
Pontiac over to Angelelli, who had the SunTrust car once again back on
track ahead of the No. 99, this time well ahead after a wheel gun
malfunctioned in the Gainsco pit, sending Gurney back out in 10th place.

Sitting in third behind the No. 61 car of Brad Friselle and No. 39 of
Antonio Garcia, neither of whom pitted during the previous stop,
Angelelli patiently made his way back to the front after the race went
back to green on Lap 40. He and Garcia first got by Friselle shortly
after the restart, and then Angelelli slipped past Garcia into the lead
on Lap 44. From there, the Italian continued running some of the fastest
laps of the race, weathered a pair of restarts on Laps 52 and 63, and
held on for a half-second margin of victory over the runner-up No. 91
Pontiac Riley of Marc Goosens and Jim Matthews.

Gurney brought the No. 99 car home in third, with Garcia and co-driver
Christian Fittipaldi finishing fourth in the No. 39 Pontiac Fabcar, and
the championship-leading No. 01 Telmex Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix
Sabates Lexus Riley of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas finishing fifth. The
finish closed the SunTrust team's deficit in the championship to
the No. 01 team to two points (319-317), and it brought Angelelli to
within two points of Pruett (324-322) in the driver championship with
only three rounds remaining: Watkins Glen, N.Y. (Aug. 10), Sonoma, Calif.
(Aug. 25) and Toele, Utah (Sept. 15). The Gainsco team and drivers are
seven points behind SunTrust and Angelelli.

"I just had a fantastic car and I must thank the team," said
Angelelli, whose 11th career Rolex Series win is second only to
Pruett's 14. "The team, as usual, did a great pit stop, and
that allowed me to go out in front of the 99 and the 01, which were the
cars we were looking after. The SunTrust car was very strong, very fast.
I think we found something that will help us through the end of the
season. Obviously, Jan was so strong and that definitely helped the whole
situation. I think now we understand something in the car that we
didn't understand before, and that will allow us to have a pretty
competitive car the rest of the way. Finally, we can go to the race
weekends and feel like we really have a shot at the win. That
hasn't been happening for a long time, now."

"We started off strong," said Magnussen, who scored his first
victory in the SunTrust car with Angelelli at Laguna Seca Raceway outside
Monterey, Calif., last season, and also scored his first and only Formula
1 championship point at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve while driving for
Stewart Racing in 1998. "Jon (Fogarty) pulled away at the
beginning, but the car came to me and I was able to pull him back in. We
caught some traffic and we were able to pull a bit of a gap. On the first
caution, we had an excellent stop and the team made an excellent call on
(taking no) tires. We got out ahead, and I think what they (the 99 team)
gained on new tires wasn't enough to challenge us even though we
were on old tires. We then made a good pit stop and a good driver change
and Max got out ahead. He was strong and was able to pull away. It was
absolutely perfect for us."

"Everybody needed this," said team owner Wayne Taylor.
"These guys worked tirelessly this year, building a team, going
from race to race, moving from one race shop into another. It's
very seldom when you go to a race and have a very fast car, especially
with that 99 being faster than everybody all year. When we got here, we
clearly had a car that was capable of winning. It was the first race
we've gone to this year where we all knew we had a car that could
win. When you know that's the case, that's added pressure
because when you have a car that can win, then you have to win. So that
was the biggest pressure for me, knowing there was going to be no excuse
not to win this race. And with all the cautions and with all the strategy
and with all the potential things that could go wrong, with driver
changes and such, everything ended up being just perfect. The way the 99
and 01 cars ended up just helped us a lot in the championship. Now, at
least, everybody is in a major positive mode here. We know we've
got a fast car, now. We've found what the 99 car had, we think. And
now we're going to three tracks we love. We're looking
forward to getting (co-driver) Memo (Gidley) back. We know he loves
Watkins Glen and Sears Point, his home track. And we've got Jan
back for Salt Lake City. So I'm really happy."